Camilla Jessen
In a chaotic response to Ukrainian drone attacks, Russian forces allegedly downed one of their own warplanes.
Russian air defense forces destroyed their own Su-30SM fighter jet over Crimea while responding to a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks, according to Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk.
“They were repelling Ukrainian attacks so actively that they ended up shooting down their own aircraft over Crimea,” Pletenchuk said during a broadcast on Apostrof TV on October 17.
He added that Russian forces are now gathering information about the incident.
Fighter Jet Mistaken for Enemy Target
While Russia has not officially confirmed the loss, open-source monitoring groups later identified the downed aircraft as likely being a Su-30SM — a twin-engine, multi-role fighter used widely across the Russian Air Force.
The incident reportedly occurred during the night, amid intense air defense activity triggered by incoming Ukrainian drones.
The friendly fire mishap coincided with renewed Ukrainian strikes on infrastructure in occupied Crimea.
According to Pletenchuk, another significant fire broke out at a local oil depot following the attacks.
Civilian Flight Nearly Targeted
This is not the first indication of strained and error-prone Russian air defense operations.
Earlier reports suggested a Russian missile system mistakenly opened fire on a civilian airliner approaching Moscow, narrowly avoiding catastrophe after misidentifying the aircraft as a drone.
This article is made and published by Camilla Jessen, which may have used AI in the preparation
